K’la mission braces for major election exercise

KAMPALA - The Rwandan High Commission in Uganda has planned a massive registration exercise to enable nationals residing in Uganda to take part in the forthcoming 2010 presidential slated for August, 2010. In an interview with The New Times, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Uganda, Frank Mugambage, called on all Rwandans residing in Uganda to register as early as possible to avoid a last minute rush. “I am kindly appealing to all who have not yet registered and those who voted last time to come and cross check their names” the new high commissioner said . “Its legitimate and a constitutional right and responsibility of every Rwandan citizen to take part, so all students, business people and all concerned should come and register”. Mugambage revealed that the embassy will provide provisional electoral commission sanctioned documents to those who have not yet received their national identity cards and passports. The official registration centre is the Rwandan High Commission in Kampala. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) last year revealed that over 5.2 million Rwandans are expected to turn up for the forthcoming presidential polls. NEC is currently updating and revising the voters registers at the grass root levels. The number of voters will increase by 1.3 million compared to the 2003 presidential elections when 3.9 million people voted. The Government has so far raised Rwf 3.5billion generated from the 2009/10 budget and is planning to release more funds in the 2010/11 budget. Development partners that have so far made pledges totalling Rwf 2.3billion include DFID with Euros1 million (Approx. Rwf 824m), European Union - 1.5m (Approx Rwf 1.2bn) and the Netherlands Euros 250,000 (Approx Rwf 210m). A unique feature in the forthcoming elections is that the voter cards will bear photos of voters, which was not the case in all previous elections. 16,000 polling stations will be set up while 70,000 polling agents are currently undergoing training. Ends